Kremer a 'work in progress' in rough return

Last September, Dean Kremer dazzled against the Yankees in his first two big league starts, holding New York to two runs over his first 11 Major League innings. Kremer earned a spot in the Orioles’ 2021 rotation largely on the strength of those memorable outings, after finishing 2020 with a humbling start and struggling this spring.

The club’s No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, Kremer is going to get ample opportunity to re-find the form that produced those early results. But things haven’t gone as well since, and the young righty is still searching.

The latest example came Wednesday, when in his first start back from the Orioles’ alternate training site, Kremer matched up against the Yankees for the fourth time already in his brief big league career. The resulting 7-0 loss came largely at his expense, with Kremer allowing six earned runs over 4 1/3 innings to balloon his ERA to 8.40.

“You have to be able to pitch ahead in this league, and especially in this division, and you need to be able to throw your heater where you want to,” O’s manager Brandon Hyde said. “If you can’t do that, it’s going to be erratic. His stuff is there. But you need to be able to throw your heater where you want to, or at least in the general area, to be able to set up other things. If you can’t land a breaking ball also, all they’re doing is sitting hard on you. It’s tough to pitch that way against Major League hitters who are good players.”

Pitching with good control (no walks) but inconsistent command in the strike zone, Kremer fell victim to homers from Mike Ford (solo) and Gio Urshela (three-run) amid a barrage of loud contact. Of the 18 balls he allowed in play, 12 exceeded Statcast’s 95 mph exit velocity “hard-hit” threshold, including Giancarlo Stanton’s 119.4 mph rocket Maikel Franco deftly turned into a first-inning double play. But almost all the others found grass; Kremer fell behind to nine of 22 batters and allowed 10 hits.

“I didn’t get ahead as much as I should have,” Kremer said. “And every time I came into the zone, down in the count, they capitalized.”

It was the opposite of winning pitcher Domingo Germán, who held the Orioles to three singles over seven shutout innings. Through four starts, Kremer has coughed up 14 earned runs on 24 hits in 15 innings pitched. He’s yet to complete five innings in five straight starts dating back to 2020.

“It’s going to be an adjustment period this year. I understand that,” Kremer said. “It’s about hammering out the things I need to do and figuring out what makes me good.”

In that way, he’s far from the only young Orioles player experiencing growing pains, from fellow rotation member Bruce Zimmermann (5.33 ERA) to Rule 5 reliever Tyler Wells (home run allowed Wednesday; 6.52 ERA overall) to Ryan Mountcastle. Even after notching the Orioles’ first hit off Germán with an infield single in the fifth, Mountcastle is just 4-for-his-last 36 and encapsulating the all-or-nothing nature of the O’s offense as a whole. Wednesday’s shutout was their fourth in 24 games; they’ve scored seven runs combined in their last eight losses.

“It’s a work in progress. We’re going to live with the bumps and the bruises and continue to improve,” Hyde said. “This is part of being in the Major Leagues as a young player. It’s not an easy league and they are facing good lineups, and they are going to have some tough days and they are going to have some good days. This is a tough lineup to pitch against. You need to have your 'A' game and you need to have your command. If you don’t, it’s going to be very, very challenging and a lot of balls are going to be hit hard.”